Am I Doing it Wrong?

I’m working as hard as I can at making this Indie thing into a career. I’m sending manuscript samples off to potential agents. I’m doing a daily flash fiction to gain an audience base. I’ve recently started attempting to advertise my stuff on social media.

Well. Re-started. I lost impetus somewhere in the past and it’s taken me quite some time to summon the bravery to do it again.

And I had to demonstrate sensitivity to the visually impaired because I firkin BELIEVE in putting my effort where my mouth is.

But what really gets to me is that, for all my hard work, it’s not paying off.

I mean, I’m going to keep writing. I can’t not write. Ninety percent of my time is spent in alternate realities. I’m constantly dreaming things up that I have to put down.

BUT…

It’d be really nice if my habit could also pay the bills, you know?

The computer I paid for with my last real job is dying. I’d like for this ‘chocolate job’ to pay for the next one. And I’m only eight hundred dollars along the way to the three thousand I need for a new computer that’s compatible with this one’s data.

Because I have a LOT of unfinished works that I’d like to have a go at finishing.

And for those wondering about ‘chocolate job’ – it’s not intended to be a slur, I promise. It’s more of a riff from one of the Shrek movies where the opposite of a real thing is a chocolate thing. It certainly seems to pay in chocolate money.

For all my effort at spruiking my own stuff, I get less than cents on the hour. And I refuse to spam all mediums at all times because that will drive audiences away.

What am I doing wrong?

What can I do with a zero-dollar budget and a dislike of being a spammer to get my stuff ‘out there’? I don’t really know. It takes all of my time to do all the stuff I already do.

But if you’d like to help, you can buy one of my extant books on Smashwords. Or you can pledge something on my Patreon. For as little as a dollar a month, you too can have exclusive access to unpublished works of art by yours truly. Check it out.

I’m definitely a step away from the common throng.